On April 7 around 3 p.m., my partner and I had just finished Physical Graffiti
and were at the base of the route and packing up to leave. I was watching two
guys struggle on Big Bad Wolf (5.9). The climber was just about to clip what I
believe was the fourth bolt and didn’t make it. He swung down and hit the wall
with one foot twisted. He immediately yelled that he had broken his ankle. I assisted the belayer in lowering the climber to where I could reach him, then positioned him to protect his bad ankle. I grabbed him and was able to hold him up with his arm around my neck. I asked if anyone had a cell phone, and an offduty
sheriff with search and rescue, who was also packing up to leave, came up.
We laid the climber down and he took over. He assessed the climber for other
injuries, splinted his ankle, and asked if he could walk out, to which he said no.
The sheriff located a good landing area nearby and called in a helicopter.
There are two things I took away from this rescue, which may be obvious now
but were not at the time. The first was to assess the total condition of the injured
person. He wasn’t hurt anywhere else, but it would have been easy for me to
overlook it. Take the extra two minutes to step back and fully assess the individual.
The second is something the sheriff said several times when we were handling
or moving the injured person: “Do not hurry.” It’s pretty easy to get excited and
rush, and end up making things worse. Take your time, moving carefully through
obstacles to make sure no one sustains further injury. (Source: From a post on
Mountainproject.com by “rging.”)